Then, when Tyson charged forward, Buster was supposed to either move to the side and throw the right or meet him head-on with some uppercuts.'' ``He said Buster should jab and move back, jab and move back. ``Larry called us, and he gave us some advice because he wanted Buster to beat Tyson,'' McCauley said. It came from Holmes, a former heavyweight champion who was one of the 37 victims on the Tyson resume. McCauley got some unsolicited - but welcome - help in that area. Once Douglas acquired his confidence, both through viewing tapes and lifting weights, the only thing left was to devise a battle plan. But you know what was even more important? He knew he was stronger. ``Lifting weights was an important key,'' McCauley said. When Douglas entered the ring, he was 231 pounds of muscle - compared to the 260 pounds of jiggling beef that he had been for some of his previous bouts. With the help of Doug Owens, a fitness instructor who attends Ohio State, the trainer developed a weight-lifting program for Douglas, who increased his poundage from 180 to 400 pounds on the bench press. McCauley knew that, if his nephew was going to bully Tyson, Douglas would have to be in the best shape of his career. The only way to fight a bully is by fighting him back.'' ``We knew that Tyson was limited,'' McCauley said. Where other fighters might have seen an invulnerable champion, Douglas saw a boxer with glaring flaws. Pinklon Thomas, who lost to Tyson two years ago, had said before their meeting that he had no interest in watching films of pugs ``flying this way and that way.'' Thomas, a former heavyweight champion, may have paid for his curious study habits by joining the list of the airborne.ĭouglas was no Pinklon Thomas. The tapes were there, true, but some fighters refused to view them. ``The tapes are there for everyone to see and study.'' ``I don't know why everyone is so surprised that Buster won,'' said his uncle and trainer, J.D. Just an ordinary man.''ĭouglas made that observation, but it was his handlers who re-enforced it, showing their fighter tape after tape of the supposedly invincible champion. I said to myself, `Something's wrong.' I figured that, the next time I saw him, he would have horns sticking out of his head. ``There was another press conference a few weeks later, and I got the same feeling. I shook hands with him, and I said, `Hmmmm, that's Mike Tyson?' And then I saw him at the first press conference for the fight, oh, about two months ago. ``I expected to see a big `S' on his shirt. ``All the papers said he was invincible,'' Douglas said. He was in shape he had a battle plan, courtesy of an unsolicited phone call from Larry Holmes he had been unimpressed by Tyson both in the flesh and on film, and he knew what the 37 men who went before him had failed to recognize: To beat a monster, it is important to remember that ogres are sometimes patsies in disguise.Īs absurd as that notion is - or was - Douglas went into the fight convinced that it was true.Īrmed with that belief, Douglas became miracle worker No. Yet, he says, he came to this fight with attributes he had never had before. More than once, his handlers complained he just didn't have his heart in it. I guess I'll have to pencil him in some time next week.''ĭouglas was joking, but his sudden shift in fortune is anything but laughable.ĭouglas is a man who never before even demonstrated a passion for boxing. ``Will I have time to meet him? I don't know. ``The president called to say he wants to shake my hand,'' said Douglas, trying to relax in the small ranch-style home of his manager. A Las Vegas hotel and casino offered him $5 million - $4 million more than he earned against Tyson - to spend five nights there, walking through the game rooms and signing autographs and, well, just being seen. the next.''ĭouglas, has appeared on ``Late Night With David Letterman'' and Johnny Carson. ``He was James `Buster' Douglas one day,'' said his manager, John Johnson. With his shocking upset over Mike Tyson last Sunday in Tokyo, Douglas went from stiff to heavyweight champion in about 30 minutes. COLUMBUS, Ohio - In the history of the working class, no one has revised his job resume more dramatically than James ``Buster'' Douglas.
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